State Changes Criteria To Enter Gifted Classroom

August 11, 2002|By Jamie Malernee Education Writer

Margery Marcus is worried.

As a teacher of gifted students and former director of advanced academic programs for the school district, she's always kept an eye on the racial makeup of Broward's gifted classes. And over the past few years, she has been pleased by the growing number of minorities enrolled in honors and advanced placement courses. But she fears that trend could reverse starting this fall.

Over the summer, the state changed the criteria by which many minority students qualify for gifted classes, raising the minimum IQ from 116 to 130, the score most other students need to get in.

To some, that means greater fairness. To Marcus, it means the strong possibility that the county's gifted classes, already dominated by white students, will grow even less diverse.

"We're very concerned about that," she said. "We're going to have to take a deep breath, stand back and look at what the [new enrollment] numbers show us."

In the last school year, about 58 percent of all gifted students were white, 16 percent black and 18 percent Hispanic. The general population was 39 percent white, 36 percent black and 21 percent Hispanic.

To try to keep gifted classes as representative of the total school population as possible, district officials are urging all parents to be strong advocates for their children if they think they could qualify for gifted programs. Teachers are also being reminded to keep an eye out for talented students. Over the summer, a workshop was given to educators on how to identify gifted students who may speak little English or have cultural differences from the teacher.

Students who have limited English skills or who qualify for free or reduced lunch may still qualify for gifted classes with the lower IQ score of 116.

To qualify for gifted programs, all children must meet three criteria. A child must demonstrate that he or she would benefit from the program. He or she must meet the IQ testing criteria. And the child must exhibit a majority of "gifted characteristics" as observed by a teacher, Marcus said.

Some of those characteristics are observed in students who:

Are bored by regular classes and may even have behavior problems because they are not being challenged;

Have a passion for a particular subject area;

Are perfectionists;

Are comfortable in the company of adults and often seek out older children as friends;

Have little tolerance for drill or routine tasks;

Have a sense of humor.

Marcus urged all parents who think their child is gifted to contact their school counselor as soon as possible to begin the process, which includes various screenings and can take one month to 90 days to complete. Parents can have their child privately tested to speed things up, she added, but should be careful to make sure the testing psychologist is properly licensed.

If a child turns out to not be gifted, Marcus stressed that the district has many other options for high-performing students. In middle and high school, entrance into honors classes, advanced placement courses and the International Baccalaureate program are not based on IQ levels, she said.

"Often, [students who are gifted and students in advanced programs] end up in the same class anyway," Marcus said. "My own daughter was high-performing -- but not gifted -- and she went on to college and is now an attorney."

Jamie Malernee can be reached at jmalernee@sun-sentinel.com or 954-385-7910.